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As .web goes live, “.website” changes hands

Kevin Murphy, July 27, 2026, 10:32:18 (UTC), Domain Registries

Identity Digital’s 2026 acquisition spree has continued, with the registry taking over a gTLD that means “.website” but has remarkably few registrations even a decade after launch.

ICANN records show Jolly Host, an Identity Digital subsidiary, is now the contracted party for .网站 (or .xn--5tzm5g as it appears in the DNS), which is the Chinese for “.website”.

The original registry was Hong Kong-based Global Website TLD Asia, part of the DotAsia registry group managed by former ICANN director Edmon Chung.

Despite the apparent goldmine of such a common term, addressing a market as large as China’s, as of today .网站 has just 2,871 domains in its zone file, the most it has ever had.

The news comes just a few days after the fate of English-language .web was finally sealed, with Verisign getting its prize delegated after a decade of legal wrangling.

It’s the seventh gTLD contract Jolly Host has had reassigned to it since February.


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